Stay Productive at Home During Coronavirus

Welcome to a new normal, where most of the non-essential working population of the United States is required to shelter-in-place. Even real estate agents and brokers, while now deemed essential employees are still staying home to assist in flattening the curve. Despite the fact that the pandemic has stalled most of the purchase and sale movement in the industry right now, there are plenty of ways to stay productive while sheltering at home.*

Create a Daily Routine that Works for You

Real estate agents are notorious for having difficulties in maintaining a daily routine. Many successful agents already use time blocking and other scheduling techniques in order to stay productive at home. But others—most agents—let the calls, emails, and text messages drive their daily activities. Now that most of us are home most of the time, why not try to put a daily routine in place? From Monday through Friday, wake up at the same time each day. Set work hours, exercise hours, family time, and chore time among other things.

For me (and this is admittedly easier because my kids are all grown up), I’ve been able to work my regular hours from my dining room table. Between 4:00 pm and 4:30 pm, I shut down. And while I previously went to the gym most late afternoons, now I go out to my garage, pull out my car, and exercise. I’ve been doing Tabata workouts 3-4 days a week, using a free Tabata app on my phone. Then, it’s dinner, calls to friends and family, and television. That seems to work for me.

For those with kids, the schedule is going to have to include projects and activities that keep kids productive and busy—which can be admittedly a bit of a challenge. My facebook feed is filled with parents who teaching their kids to bake bread, make meals, do arts and crafts, and gardening and laundry. 

It is a challenging time, no doubt about it. But, all in all, the blessing is that it will require everyone to be more resourceful and more creative.

How a Pandemic Teaches You to Be Resourceful

One thing that this entire issue has shown me is that everyone can be extremely resourceful and creative if necessary. People have learned to make their own hand sanitizer and even their own anti-bacterial wipes. In the field of real estate, now is a great time to spend less time as a technician and more time on the entrepreneurial aspect of your business.

The previous daily real estate plan involved calls and home visits, live networking events, and property showings. While we are still doing many of these things, the new normal encourages a new way of thinking. In The E-Myth Revisited, author Michael Gerber discusses the fact that while many people are very good technicians (such as say being a very good bartender), those same people may not be very good at the administrative or entrepreneurial aspects of their business (such as running a bar). He calls that working in your business versus working on your business. Now, with less opportunities for distractions, it is a great opportunity to consider working on your business. Create projects that will launch your business or take it to the next level once we are all free to leave the house. 

What Kind of Entrepreneurial Things Can Real Estate Agents Do to Stay Productive at Home?

Depending upon where you are at in your business right now, there are a number of things that you can do. Here are some suggestions:

• Go through your entire CRM and check each and every entry to see if it has accurate information. Add birthdays and home anniversaries when applicable.
• If you do not have a CRM, get one and then add all your contacts from your mobile phone and get them organized.
• Do an Internet audit, by googling your name and see if everything on each site has up to date information.
• Update all of your social profiles and bios.
• Create a social media marketing plan for each and every social site that you use. Use a social media scheduler such as Hootsuite or Meet Edgar in order to plan your social media posts for a few weeks at a time.
• Develop or update your email newsletter. Create a regular newsletter plan, if you don’t already have one.
• Update your website, if you have one. Check each and every button and read each and every piece of text on your site to make sure everything is working properly and is up to date.
• Create a Vlog or work on a series of videos for a YouTube Channel.
• What do you know about? Write a book or create an online class to teach others.

While the pandemic is certainly unfortunate, if there is a silver lining, it might be that it will teach us all to be a little more resourceful and creative? What are you doing with your business and/or with your loved ones to make it through the day and keep it positive?

*If you are reading this blog and are suffering from the coronavirus or have a friend or family member who is suffering or has been taken too soon, this post is by no means meant to be insensitive to your personal situation. Our sincerest thoughts and best wishes go out to you and it is our great hope that things will get better for you soon.